This invention relates to a Mechanical Concentric Support Device, and more particularly to a device for concentrically supporting a workpiece on a machine tool.
The prior art in this area includes a wide variety of devices such as lathe chucks and live and dead centers. However, such devices have generally been poorly adapted for internal support of a workpiece, and they lack flexibility in adapting to either external or internal support of workpieces of widely varying sizes. Prior art devices have also generally placed their key connector for operating their jaw-driving mechanisms or scroll on one of the cylindric surfaces of the device, rendering use either difficult or impossible for internal support of workpieces only slightly larger in internal diameter than the diameter of the device itself. Furthermore, many prior art devices have been intended for use only at what would be the driving end of the machine tool, such as the headstock of a lathe.